Expect Anything Fear Nothing

Seminar om den situationistiske bevægelse i Skandinavien

15. & 16. marts 2007 i Folkets Hus,
Stengade 50, Nørrebro

Den situationistiske bevægelse var en kulturel-revolutionær bevægelse, som havde sine mest aktive år i 1960erne rundt omkring i Europa. Men mange af situationisternes ideer er stadig anvendelige i vores daglige kamp mod den neoliberale globaliserede kapitalisme. Den Situationistiske Internationale blev grundlagt af Asger Jorn og Guy Debord i Cosio d'Arroscia, Italien, i 1957. Det blev startskudet til en kunstnerisk og politisk kamp mod det gryende forbrugersamfund og dets fremmedgørende fremtrædelses-former - mod hvad de betegnede skuespilsamfundet.

Der opstod hurtigt spild i den Situationistiske Internationale, og forskellige fraktioner etablerede sig i begyndelsen af 1960erne i Frankrig, Belgien, Holland, Tyskland, Danmark og Sverige. Da bevægelsen troede på ideen om en avantgarde, der skulle bryde isen for revolutionen var diskussionerne om midlerne for den revolutionære kamp altafgørende. Den fransk-belgiske fraktion, som fortsatte som den Situationistske Internationale, var skeptiske over for kunstens muligheder for at fungere som redskab i kampen mod skuespilsamfundet og derfor koncentrerede de sig om at analysere den spektakulære markedskapitalisme.
Den tysk-skandinaviske fraktion var derimod mere aktivistisk anlagt og ville realisere revolutionen nu og her ved at sætte kunstens kreativitet fri i hverdagslivet, kunstnerne skulle simpelthen overtage produktionsmidlerne og byen skulle forvandles til et stort kunstværk uden beskuere - alle skulle detage. Den tysk-skandinaviske fraktion var mere åben og anarkistisk indstillet og gik under flere navne bla. Den 2. Situationistiske Internationale og Bauhaus Situationiste.

Ved seminaret vil vi aktuallisere de tanker og metoder, som den situationistiske bevægelse stod for, men vi vil også give situationisterne en plads i den skandinaviske kulturhistorie, som de har været udgrænset fra. Samtidig har den situationistiske bevægelse været genstand for stor opmærksomhed på internationalt plan, men historiseringen har hovedsageligt fokuseret på den fransk-belgiske sektions analystisk-teoretiske arbejde, og i mindre grad fokuseret på den tysk-skandinaviske sektions mere aktivistiske og kunstneriske perspektiv. Den skævhed vil vi gerne råde
bod på.

Hvis du vil vide mere om den situationistiske bevægelses historie i Skandinavien og læse nogle af deres tekster, så kig i det danske situationistiske tekstarkiv her >>>

Læs Vi forlanger byen fyldt med offentlige orgier oom situationisterne og livet i byen skrevet til Ungeren har ordet - dagbladet information >>>

Program

Torsdag d. 15. marts
12.00: Introduktion: Mikkel Bolt & Jakob Jakobsen
12.30: The Use of History - Situating the Situationist Internationale: Stewart Home & Tom McDonough.
14.00: Kaffepause & Snacks
14.45: Realizing Philosophy through Play: Lars Morell & Karen Kurczynski
16.15: Kaffepause
16.30: Anyone can be a situationist: Hardy Strid
17.15: The films of Drakabygget & Screening of Gruppe SPUR, Jørgen Nash & Albert Merz: So ein Ding (1961): Carl Nørrested.
19.00: Mad og drikke

Fredag d. 16. marts
10.00: Destroying the Spectacle: Mikkel Bolt & Zwi/Negator
11.30: Kaffepause
12.00: The Situationist Counter Public Sphere:
Karen Kurczynski & Jacqueline de Jong
13.00: Frokost
14.00: Revolution: Art or Politics? Peter Laugesen & Fabian Tompsett
15.30: Kaffepause
15.45: An Utopia in Scania? Jakob Jakobsen & Gordon Fazakerley
16.45: Diskussion
17.45: Film
19.00: Mad og drikke

Medvirkende

Jacqueline de Jong (NL), Karen Kurczynski (US), Stewart Home (UK), Thomas McDonough (US), Peter Laugesen (DK), Hardy Strid (SE), Lars Morell (DK), Mikkel Bolt (DK), Jakob Jakobsen (DK), Gordon Fazakerley (UK/DK), Fabian Tompsett (UK), Zwi Negator (DE), Carl Nørrested (DK)

Baggrund og info >>>

Seminaret er arrangeret af Mikkel Bolt og Jakob Jakobsen i samarbejde med Det Fri Universitet i København, Nordisk Netværk for Avantgarde-studier, Institutut for Kunst og Kulturvidenskab - Københavns Universitet, Det Fynske Kunstakademi og Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi.

Seminar on the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia

March 15 & 16 2007 at Folkets Hus,
Stengade 50, Copenhagen

The Situationist movement was a cultural revolutionary movement that had its highest point of activity across Europe in the 1960s. But many of the Situationist ideas are still relevant and useful in our daily struggle against neoliberal globalised capitalism. In 1957 Asger Jorn and Guy Debord founded the Situationist International in Cosio
d'Arroscia, Italy. It was the starting point for an artistic and
political struggle against the emerging consumer society and its alienating representation - against what the situationists called the Society of the Spectacle.

Secessions quickly developed within the Situationist International and various fractions emerged in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden at the beginning of the 1960s. With the Situationist belief in the idea of an avant-garde that was meant to break the ice for the revolution, the debates about the means of the
revolutionary struggle were crucial. The French-Belgian fraction that continued as the Situationist International was sceptical about art as a means in the struggle against the Society of the Spectacle and concentrated their effort on analysing spectacular free market capitalism. Contrary to this, the German-Scandinavian fraction believed in direct action and wanted to realise the revolution here and now by setting free the creative forces of art in the everyday. The artists should take over the means of production and the city should be transformed into one great work of art without
spectators. The German-Scandinavian fraction was more open and anarchist, and worked under several names - The 2. Situationist International and Situationist Bauhaus among others.

With this seminar, we want to re-actualise the thoughts and methods that the Situationist movement developed and promoted, but additionally we want to put the Situationist movement back into the Scandinavian cultural history from which it has been excluded. From an international perspective, the Situationist movement has become the object of much attention within recent years, but this historification has mainly focused on the French-Belgian fraction's analytic theoretical work and to a lesser degree on the predominantly artistic and activist trajectory of the German Scandinavian fractions. This is the misrepresentation we want to eradicate.

If you want to know more about the history of the Situationist movement in Scandinavia and read a selection of texts translated from Danish and Swedish have a look in the Scandinavian situationist text archive here >>>

Program

Thursday March 15
12.00: Introduction: Mikkel Bolt & Jakob Jakobsen
12.30: The Use of History: Situating the Situationist Internationale: Stewart Home & Tom McDonough.
14.00: Coffee Break & Snacks
14.45: Realizing Philosophy through Play: Lars Morell & Karen Kurczynski
16.15 Coffee Break
16.30: Anyone can be a situationist: Hardy Strid
17.15: The films of Drakabygget and Screening of Gruppe SPUR, Jørgen Nash & Albert Merz: So ein Ding (1961): Carl Nørrested
19.00 Dinner

Friday March 16
10.00: Destroying the Spectacle: Mikkel Bolt & Zwi/Negator
11.30: Coffee Break
12.00: The Situationist Counter Public Sphere:
Karen Kurczynski & Jacqueline de Jong
13.00: Lunch
14.00: Revolution: Art or Politics? Peter Laugesen & Fabian Tompsett
15.30: Coffee Break
15.45: An Utopia in Scania? Jakob Jakobsen & Gordon Fazakerley
16.45: Discussion
17.45: Film Screening
19.00: Dinner

Participants

Background and info >>>

The seminar is organised by Mikkel Bolt and Jakob Jakobsen in collaboration with The Copenhagen Free University, The Nordic Netvork of Avant Garde Studies, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts & The Funen Art Academy.